1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope apparatus, an electronic endoscope of which is configured to include an image pickup apparatus at a distal end portion of an insertion portion and such that one image pickup cable selected from among a plurality of types of image pickup cables is provided inside a universal cord.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes are in widespread use in medical and industrial fields. An example of an endoscope is a so-called electronic endoscope which has, at a distal end portion of an insertion portion, a built-in image pickup apparatus for forming an endoscopic image of an inside of a patient, an inside of a structure, or the like. The electronic endoscope can perform an observation while displaying the endoscopic image on a display apparatus, such as a monitor, which is an outside apparatus.
The image pickup apparatus is connected to, for example, a video processor which is an apparatus outside the electronic endoscope through an image pickup cable. The image pickup cable is inserted through the insertion portion, an operation portion, and a universal cord in the electronic endoscope and is connected to the video processor via a connector. The universal cord is exposed to an environment which is susceptible to disturbance noise generated by a different medical instrument or the like. An overall shield which blocks noise is provided for the image pickup cable to prevent image quality degradation due to noise.
Recently, there has been a need for higher quality of an endoscopic image. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-279148 discloses an electronic endoscope apparatus which has achieved prevention of size increase, particularly increase in a diameter of an insertion portion, even in a case where an image pickup apparatus that can acquire a high-quality image is placed at a distal end portion of the insertion portion.
In the above-described electronic endoscope apparatus, a plurality of types of image pickup cables having equal lengths and different diameters are prepared in advance according to specifications of electronic endoscopes. Such preparation allows easy creation of a finished product suited to uses of each type of electronic endoscope and easy assembly.